Circuit breaker



Patented June 4, 1935 y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CIRCUIT BREAKERCharles V. Giai'mo,- Irvington, N. J., assignor to The LionelCorporationNew' York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March26, 1931, Serial No. 525,363

4 Claims. (Cl. 20G-106) The present invention relates to circuit break-I5. It has an open side opposite the wall I4, this rs and is moreparticularly directed toward open side being closed by a plate ofinsulating circuit breakers adapted for use in controlling the material20, which is held in'place by screws 2| circuit for toy railroadoperation. and 22, threaded into lugs 23 and 24 formed in- 5 Toyrailroads are operated at low voltage obside of the housing. 5

tained from a transformer, or batteries or a cur- This insulating panel2D supports the operative rent reducer. The third rail of the tracklayout parts for the circuit breaker and the binding is connected to oneside of the supply source while posts for connecting the device into thecircuit. the track rails form the return and are connected One bindingpost is indicated at A while the other l0 by a wire with the other sideof the current source. binding post is indicated at B. The binding post10 The third rails and track rails are exposed so that A is held inplace by a screw 25. This screw and accidental short circuits mayreadily occur should a rivet 26 support a spring Contact 2l on the inacar be derailed or some other conductor acciside face of the insulatingblock. The binding dentally come in Contact with the third rail and postB is held in place by a screw indicated at 28 the grounded track rail.Any such short circuit which also supports a strap 29, which extends 15will draw excessive current and will stop the operdownwardly to beopposite the lug 24 whereby the ation cf the train, binding post B canbe grounded vto the housing The present invention contemplates a circuitof the circuit breaker when the parts are asbreaker particularly adaptedfor use in the opersembled.

ation of toy trains, the circuit breaker being The insulating plate 2%also carries the frame 20 placed in series with one of the leads andadapted or chassis member 3! which is secured in place to carry thenormal operating current of the track by three rivets as indicated atSI, 32 and 33. layout without acting to open the circuit. It, ThisChaSSS member iS provided with a lower however, operates an overload orshort circuit rearward extension 34, which supports a solenoid 25 toopen the circuit thereby protecting the battery coil 35. The armature 35for the solenoid is 25 or transformer. It is preferably arranged so thatsupported by a link 3l' carried on the rear end a warning light will beilluminated when the cirof the lever 38 pivoted at 39 in a rearwardexcuit breaker is opened, this warning light to retension 40 of theframe 39. main lighted as long as the short circuit con- The frame SSOhas a' rear eXtBllSOn n- 30 tinues. The invention also contemplates anovericated at 4l in which is mounted a lever 42 30 load circuit breakerfor the purposes above readapted to act as the movable contact of theferred to, which is capable of manual operation to Switch. The lower end43 of this lever is Oppoopen and close the circuit, site the fixedcontact 2l while its upper end 44 The accompanying drawing shows, forpurposes is notched as indicated at 45 to receive a lug of illustratingthe invention, one of the many 45 O11 the flOIlt 6nd Of the leV 33- ASpring 4T 35 possible embodiments in which it may take form, HEICODHGCSDarts 38 and 4| 3S ndated, UhS it being understood that the drawing isillus- Spring Cling t0 11015 the lug 45 Il the Ilot/3h 45 trative of theinvention rather than limiting the When the SWCh iS C1OS and '60 dlW themOV- same. able contact away from the fixed contact when 40 In thedrawing: the solenoid acts on the lever 38 to release the 40 Figure l isa front elevational view of a commOVablo Contact. plete circuit breaker;A warning light I0 is carried at the upper part Figure 2 is a sectionalview on the line 2-2 of 5 Of the hOUSIlg- This lamp iS threaded intoFigure l, parts being shown in circuit closing a socket indicated at 1I,one side of which is position in full lines and in circuit openingposigrounded. The other side of the socket is con- 45 tion in dot anddash lines; nected by a wire 12 with the screw 25. This Figure 3 is asectional View on a broken line 3-3 lamp will be lighted when thecircuit breaker of Figure 2, the parts being shown in circuit is openand connection is made in the track circlosing position in full linesand in circuit opencuit. It will, therefore, indicate the existence ofing position in dot and dash lines; and a short circuit which caused theoperation of the 50 Figure 4 is a diagrammatic View with supercircuitbreaker. posed wiring diagram. It is obvious that the invention may beem- In the drawing the housing or casing for the bodied in many formsand constructions within u circuit breaker is indicated at ID. It has abase the scope of the claims, and I wish it to be under- 53 II, threeside Walls I2, I3 and I4, and top wall stood that the particular formshown is but one of the many forms. Y changes being possible, I' do nototherwise limit Various modifications and Vmovable switch contact i3 toclose the switch so that the lug e6 enters the notch l5 to holdv theswitch closed. It is also engageable With this lug to release the latchso that the switch 'is snapped open by the spring 47.

The chassis frame 3e levers Si! and 50 mayr be made out of sheet steelor other magnetizable material while the movable switch contact G3 ispreferably made out of brass or other non'- magnetizable material.

One end of thecoil 35 is connected by wire indicated at with .the screw2S While the other end is grounded to the chassis as indicated at El.When the circuit is closed the current Will Y flow from the transformeror other current source T, indicated in Figure 4, to the binding post Athrough the contacts 2l and i3 to the chassis frame 3Q and then throughthe coil 3e, lead 66 to binding post B. This binding post and the otherside of the transformer may be connected to the track layout asindicated. Should a short circuit or overload occur in the track layoutan excessive current will flow through the coil which will release thelatch mechanism and allow the spring fil' to open the circuit.

V/'hat is claimed is:

l. A circuit breaker adapted `for loW ,voltage circuits comprising aninsulating plate, a conducting frame securedto one face of the plate, acontact secured adjacent the frame, a solenoid coil supported from theframe and connected at one end to the frame, an armature core movablycarried in the coil, a switching member pivotally secured to the frameand having a free end engageable with the contact to complete a circuitfrom the contact through the switching member, frame and coil, amanually operable lever pivotally carried by the frame for actuating theswitching member, a latching lever connected to the armature andcooperable with the switching members to hold it in closed position, anda spring between the switching member and the latcliing lever, thespring holding the latching lever in position to hold the switchingmember in closed position and pulling the switching member away from thecontact. y

2. A circuit breaker as claimed in claim l, wherein the frame is made ofsheet metal, the pivoted members are secured to rearwardly bent lugs,and the coil is supported on a rearwardly extending platform formed bybending the frame. 3. ln'a circuit breaker for controlling low voltagecircuits,a fixed contact, a sheet metal frame insulated from the fixedcontact, a coil carried by the frame, an armature for the coil actuatinga lever pivoted to the frame, a bar pivoted to the frame, one end of thebar being engageable with the xed contact and the other end beingadjacent the lever, a spring interconnecting the bar and lever andtending to moveV the link away from the xed contact, the adjacent endsof the bar and lever having interengageable latching means releasable bythe armature to allow the spring to open the circuit breaker, and amanually operable lever for operating the bar to circuit-opening orcircuit-closing position.

Ll. A circuit breaker for toy railroads and the like comprising a metalhousing open atone side; a circuit breaker unit including a mountingplate of insulating material for closing the open side of the housing,fixed and movable contacts car.

ried by the plate inside the housing the Xed contact'being connected toan external terminal, a solenoid supported from the plate and connectedat one side to an external terminal carried by the plate and at theother side to the movable contact, a spring for biasing the movablecontact toward open position, an armature for the solenoid, anexternally accessible manually operable switch opening and closingmeans, and a latch member operable by the solenoid for releasing themovable contact.

CHARLES V. GIAIMO.

